2013 - Week 13

This week we celebrated Christian's 29th birthday, along with my stepmom's birthday and Easter - and we said goodbye to March.

Monday was a very busy and chaotic day. Things are pretty crazy busy right now for me at work. It doesn't help that I've been missing so much time the last few weeks with all of these random illnesses. But, we're creeping up on the end of our fiscal year, which means everybody is scrambling to use up the last of their money. So, contracts galore! And, everything is a rush. Oh the joys! I ran to the grocery store quick on my lunch break to get a few necessities to get us through the week. I left work just a tad early so I could run to the mall quick and pick up a gift card for Christian's birthday. Then, I was off to pick up the girls. Monday is typically Christians day to pick them up - but, he realized at the last minute that he'd never renewed his drivers license, which expires tomorrow, so he had to take care of that after work. Amelia had woken up from her nap pretty miserable - she spent the afternoon sitting on my father in-law's lap and was pretty excited to head home when I got there. Our nieces are on spring break this week, so they were over there for the day - Olivia was in HEAVEN playing with them all day - I literally had to drag her out of the house. I finally got them and their suitcases out and packed into the car and we made our way home. I unloaded them, all their stuff, the groceries and my own stuff and lugged everything into the house. Finally got some dinner made, we ate and Christian arrived home just as we finished up. Amelia was off to bed and I was finally able to get my workout in for the day. Thankfully, it was just a quick yoga workout tonight, because I was EXHAUSTED! We finally sent Olivia off to bed and Christian and I settled in to watch this weeks The Walking Dead. What a day!

Amelia passed out on the short drive home from my in-laws. Poor thing.

Olivia was left at the table to eat the food she refused to eat. I guess falling asleep out of boredom and tantrum throwing is one way of getting out of eating!

Tuesday marked Christian's 29th birthday! Crazy - especially because that means in a few months I'll be turning the big 3-0. Ick. The girls were off to school today - everybody seemed happy and healthy, so I spent the day with my fingers crossed. BUT, I received a call from school after nap time letting me know that Amelia woke up crying and very upset, they couldn't get her to stop crying and she just seemed miserable...again. So, I packed up some work, picked the girls up and we made our way home. She did seem much better once home, but definitely not 100%. Christian picked up some Chipotle on his way home for his birthday dinner. We had dinner, we gave him his cards and gift and had some cheesecake for dessert. YUM! Once the girls were in bed, Christian was off to watch some big soccer game. The game didn't even start until 9:30 - he's CRAZY! But, it's his birthday, so I didn't give him a hard time about it :)

Amelia seemed much better once home and settled in.

Lots of birthday love and celebration!

On Wednesday I decided to just work from home. Amelia hasn't been sleeping well at all (newborn flashbacks!!!!!!!!!), and I figured she could use a good day of rest. She definitely seemed better - she played for a while, watched some videos, ate some food and took a nice long nap. Christian went into work late, so, in turn, he ended up working pretty late as well. I dropped Olivia off at school quick before he left for the day, and then got to work. One good thing about working from home is that I can just plow through my new Contracts - no e-mail, no phone calls - no interruptions. It's a nice break every once in a while. Once I was done working for the day, I got my workout in. While working out, I got the phone call from Christian that he wouldn't be able to pick Olivia up (really, this was 15 minutes before they closed). So, I had to rush over - post-workout, with poor Amelia still in her PJ's, to pick her up. She was the only kid left there. I was so embarrassed  on so many levels. Nonetheless, we made our way home, started dinner and spent the rest of the night relaxing. What should have been a pretty laid back day, working from home and no plans, turned into quite a busy day. Seems to be the story of my life these days!

Olivia had a visitor in bed this morning...sneaky dog! She thought it was pretty hilarious when I showed her the picture.

Amelia is already learning - moms don't get sick days!

Thursday was finally a low-key day. Amelia was back to school, and appeared to be completely back to normal. she was eating, she napped well, no crying, no issues. What a relief! Hopefully we're FINALLY on the mend! The weather is starting to (temporarily) look up - we took the plastic off of the kitchen window so that we could finally get some fresh air in the house. It felt amazing, and the girls thought it was pretty awesome. Other than that, it was a very uneventful day. Thank God!

The girls enjoyed the fresh air...

...and received some letters from the Easter Bunny!

Friday started off on a bad note. Gained some of the weight back. No, I didn't eat perfectly, but I worked by butt off. I couldn't believe it. And, I can guarantee, it's going to send me into a downward spiral. I just can't figure out where I'm going wrong, what I need to do. To work so hard, and get bad results...I just can't handle that. So frustrating! After that disappointment, I was off to work. A pretty standard day - actually went pretty fast for a Friday. I picked up the girls after work and spent some time chatting with my mom. She had some little baskets for the girls so they spent some time rummaging through that before we hit the road. We stopped at Target to grab some last minute Easter goodies, and some birthday stuff for my stepmom, and finally made our way home. I spent the afternoon driving around with the sunroof open, enjoying the semi-springy weather - only to remember (too late) that the sunroof often does not close once it's open. So, Christian had something to fix before he even got home! He did pick up some dinner on his way home, so we ate and settled in for the night. We were both pretty exhausted and passed out not long after the girls went to bed. Busy weekend ahead of us!

Sunroof open!

The girls got eggs to hatch from my mom! They thought it was pretty awesome!

Saturday started off pretty normal. I got to work on my chores and cleaning for the day. Christian did some vacuuming and picking up as well. A little spring cleaning if you will! My dad and stepmom stopped over for some grilling to celebrate her birthday. We played with the girls, did some catching up, grilled and hung out for a while. They will be watching our dog when we go on vacation next week, but recently got a puppy of their own. So, they brought her over to see how the dogs would get a long. They got a little testy with each other, and I'm pretty sure Chuy wore her out by the end of the afternoon, but they got along pretty well overall, so that was promising. After we ate, we took the dogs on a walk through the neighborhood, and the girls took their bikes out for a bit. Today was the best weather we'd had in a long, LONG time - but it's supposed to take a turn for the worse again tomorrow - boo! After our walk, my parents left, and we got read for our next event. Our friends were coming over for a play date, dinner and some Easter Egg dying. The girls were pretty into the eggs at first, but eventually grew bored of it. It didn't take long for the dad's to disappear from the action. So, Sara and I were left to finish on our own. We had plenty of fun on our own though! Once we finished up, we had some pizza for dinner, played with the girls for a while, and called it a night.

Pics from our lunch and doggy play date...

Pics from our Easter egg dying play date...

Easter baskets, ready to go!

Sunday we celebrated Easter. First up, we were off to a local church for a breakfast and Easter Service with our friends. After the service, the church hosted an open skating event at a local ice skating rink. We hadn't been skating in years, and the girls had never been, so we were pretty excited to get out and try something new. All of the girls did pretty well for their first time on skates - Bella couldn't get enough of it! Amelia grew tired of it all fairly quickly, so we took her off the ice and let her relax. It wasn't much longer before Olivia called it a day as well. At least we got out and tried it though! After skating, we made our way home for our own Easter events. The girls found their Easter baskets and tore through those for a while. Then, we made our way out to the front yard for their Easter egg hunt. They had such a blast with it this year. It's fun to watch them get more and more into it every year. They are growing up so fast! Once all of the eggs were hunted, we were finally off to our last Easter celebration of the year...my in-laws house. My sister in-law and nieces were over there, so the girls couldn't get enough of each other. We had some dinner, they got their final Easter baskets, we watched a movie and then made our way home. Just in time for baths and bed. What a fun, but exhausting day!

Easter dresses!

Ready for the Easter service...

Time to skate!

Easter baskets and egg hunt.

Cousins!

With that, we ended another week, another month. We are officially 1/4 of the way through 2013. I can't believe how fast this year is going. Everybody in the house finally seems to be healthy and back to normal, and I'm hoping we're finally on the mend. This first quarter brought us the joy of becoming debt free, reaching one of the biggest goals we've ever set for ourselves. We've been stuck in this horrible, never-ending winter, that doesn't seem to be giving up its grip any time soon. The girls are growing by leaps and bounds, and Christian and I are doing better, relationship-wise, than we have in a long, LONG time! So far, 2013 is looking pretty darn good! Time to start on the next quarter, and see where it brings us!

2013 - Week 12

This week continued winter's cold, illness inflicting grip on us.

Well, Monday brought us more snow. It's not looking like a great week weather wise, and that is super disappointing. COME ON SPRING!!!! I woke up exhausted, and the girls were pretty slow going. I decided to avoid the bad weather traffic this morning - I dropped the girls off at my in-laws, and stopped into Walmart to do our grocery shopping real quick. After getting everything put away and packing up my food for work, I was off. The day went pretty quickly. After work, I started my new workout program. I'm doing another Lindsay Brin, Moms into Fitness series, Pretty Fierce - Weight Loss. According to the schedule, the first two weeks are cardio/endurance training, and you are supposed to work out every day. If today's workout is any indication, it's going to be a rough two weeks! I'm looking forward to it though. Olivia had a pretty rough day - she claimed she burned her tongue at dinner last night, but wasn't sure if it's that, or something more. She wouldn't eat most of the day though, and seemed pretty down, so I was starting to prepare myself for another round of illness. After the rest of us ate dinner, and the girls had their baths, it was definitely time for bed.

Sick of Opening Our Garage To This...

The Girls' Easter Bunny Visits

Tuesday I spent the day working from home. Olivia was pretty miserable this morning when I tried to wake them up for school, so I thought it best to just play it safe, and keep her home. She spent most of the day resting, napping and watching videos, so I actually got a ton of work done - probably more than I would have in the office, so that was a bonus. By the end of the day, Olivia had a few bumps on her tongue, and her lips were looking a little dry. We still didn't really know what was going on though, and she was still convinced it was burned, so I pushed ice chips and cold water on her all day. Once Christian was home, I got my workout in quick, we ate dinner, and had a pretty low-key night.

A Cat, Netflix and a Banana...What More Could a Sick Girl Need??

Trying to Relax for a Bit - Not Easy With All of These Animals Around...

On Wednesday, we sent Olivia to school. She was in better spirits, and she hadn't actually had a fever the past few days, so we couldn't really justify keeping her home simply for a burnt tongue. She made it through the day just fine, but they said she definitely wasn't herself - not eating or playing, pretty somber. After school, her lip was looking pretty dry, her tongue was still blistered and she wasn't talking much. We felt horrible, but it didn't really seem like there as anything we could do. So, we had another relaxed night, just trying to rest off whatever was getting to her.

Thursday started off pretty exciting - for two days in a row, I was on time for work. At my desk and everything ON time. Awesome! And, it was my Friday. I was so swamped this week, the week flew by. Things are pretty standard for Christian right now - they are building onto his work and expanding their inventory and everything, so they are pretty busy with that right now. Should mean exciting things in the coming year or so for him! The girls are doing well in school - another week down. Because Olivia wasn't feeling so great this week, she took it pretty easy. Amelia was her usual chaotic self though. When I picked Olivia up, I noticed that she had more sores in her mouth - along her gumlines. At this point, it just didn't seem normal to me anymore - it definitely was NOT burn related. By this point, she had sores on her tongue, her lips and along her gum lines - she wasn't eating, she was barely talking and she was exhausted. She was getting worse so quickly - I decided to just run right over to Urgent Care and get her checked out. Here, the evening from hell commenced. I got to Urgent Care and the lobby was empty. I thought we'd be in and out in no time. After 40 minutes of sitting in the lobby, and another 30 sitting in the room, the doctor finally saw us. She checked Olivia over, ruled out Hand Foot Mouth disease or anything of that nature, and determined it was "just a virus" (my new most hated term), similar to cold sores. She said there wasn't anything we could do or give her to "cure" it, we just had to wait it out. She did prescribe some numbing cream to help and sent it to the pharmacy. I got the girls all bundled up and we made our way to the pharmacy - just as they were closing their gate for the night. The receptionist called in to try to get them to open back up, but it turned out they didn't even carry what was prescribed. So, they transferred it to Walgreens. By this time, it was after 7:00 - the girls hadn't eaten and were exhausted. I dropped them off to Christian and ran to Walgreens. He got Amelia fed and to bed. Walgreens gave me a wait time of 20-25 minutes, so I stopped at Wendy's and grabbed a salad - ate in my car, played on my phone for a bit...ran into Walgreens to pick up a photo order, grab some cough medicine for Amelia and some PediaSure for Olivia and successfully killed about 35 minutes. I went to check on the prescription, just for them to tell me they hadn't started it yet, and it would be another 15 minutes. I literally sunk into a waiting room chair and my eyes started to well up - I felt like such a loser, getting emotional over waiting, but I was so done with this day. I was exhausted, my heart broke for Olivia and I just wanted to get home. I was finally able to check out, made my way home, used the cream on Olivia and gave her a PediaSure. Finally got her off to bed around 9:30 and settled in for the night. Seriously...evening from hell.

At the Doctor - Who's the Patient?

Friday was a pretty long day home with the girls. It started off pretty amazing with a 3.2lb weight loss. YES!!!!!!!!!! All of the hard work this week paid off, and I'm excited to see where I get now that I'm finally back on the wagon. Other than the sniffles and a cough, Amelia was in a pretty good mood today. Olivia was still really quiet - not talking much and just taking it east. Between the two of them, I spent the day handing out medication and spreading cream on tongues. Gross. We made it through the morning though - Olivia still refuses to eat and is currently living off of PediaSure. While they napped, I did some picking up and got my workout in. They were immediately off to my in-laws house for the night once they were up from their naps (and re-medicated). Tonight, we were off for Christian's early birthday celebration with our friends. We spent the night at Chatterbox, eating some great (bad) food, chatting, catching up - I haven't laughed so hard or so much in a long, LONG time. It was such a great night. We played a couple rounds of "Apples to Apples", which I'd never played before, and it was incredibly entertaining. We definitely needed this night out - it was so relaxing and fun. Hopefully it won't be so long between visits with our friends next time! We arrived home just before midnight (super late for me, LOL) and settled in for the night. In a quiet, childless home. Crazy!

Ready to Go Out!

A Night Out With the Old Gang!

It was pretty awesome to "sleep in" on Saturday, that's for sure! I laid in bed watching some shows in the iPad for a while. It was so quiet and peaceful. I definitely missed my monsters though. They are loud, destructive, messy, dirty and always fighting - but life isn't complete without them around. Christian picked them up around noon, and they pretty much just went down for their naps. I got my workout in, we ate some lunch and watched some TV together while they napped. Once they were up, Christian was off getting ready for birthday party celebration #2, out with his friend from work, Lorenzo. Olivia was a little happier today, but still looked pretty rough - I picked off the massive scabs from her lips after her nap, hoping that would help them actually heal, and let the medication get to her sores better. It must have helped a little, because her lips almost looked healed by the time she went to bed. Amelia was pretty crabby today, and warm - but no fever and no sores (yet anyway). Still holding out hope she miraculously doesn't come down with the same thing. When I finally got them in bed for the night, I got in my jammies, popped some popcorn, grabbed an extra diet dew and settled in with some Dexter for the night. Finally starting Season 6, and super excited about it!

Being Able to Make Your Sick Kids Smile, Laugh and Momentarily Forget their Pain and Sickness is a Great Feeling!

Sunday morning Olivia woke up looking almost completely normal again. She was in good spirits all day, pretty feisty and raring to go. She BEGGED us all day to go to the zoo...sorry dear, your sissy is sick, and there's snow everywhere - we aren't wasting our time going to the zoo in the "winter"! She still wouldn't eat much, other than a ton of her favorite pasta at dinner and and snacks before bed. Amelia woke up burning up again. After some medicine and time to wake up, she perked up. But, she claimed it hurt to eat and she was sick. She's still not showing any of the blisters or sores like Olivia, so I'm not quite sure what's going on there. I spent the day doing some chores - workout, cleaned the kitchen, laundry, dishes and did some picking up around the house. Otherwise, just cuddled and spent time with the girls. I was very sad to see the day come to an end - it doesn't even feel like our weekend got started!

When this Energizer Bunny Falls Asleep In Your Arms - You KNOW It's Not Good...

So ends another week of illness and exhaustion. It has to end soon....right?!?

2013 - Week 11

Week 11. This week brought us Daylight Savings Time. Enough said. We also ended every day by watching a couple episodes of The Walking Dead before bed. By Friday, we finished Season 2, and broke down and purchased Season 3 on iTunes. OBSESSED!

Monday started off ROUGH. My phone/alarm died during the night, so I woke up way late. We were one of the only areas to get hit with snow over night, so traffic was horrible. I got to work and realized I left by work badge AND all of the work I had done at home last week, at home. Not a good run for me. The rest of the day was pretty standard. Work went by pretty fast and the evening was low key.

The view, while stuck in traffic. Snow, snow and more snow!

Tuesday, we were all still dragging and adjusting to the time change. The girls did NOT want to get up for anything in the morning. Poor things. Also, it's freezing. It's feels like winter is NEVER going to end - Spring hits next week, but there's no sign of a warm up, and still plenty of snow in the forecast. Gross. This has been a long, LONG winter. One slightly entertaining tidbit from today - when I picked the girls up from school, Olivia's coat was SOAKING wet, CRAZY wet. I felt something in her pocket and went digging. She had her pockets packed full of ice. Apparently she was going to save it. Oh dear, there's plenty to go around! LOL.

The girls were twinsies for school today!

Wednesday brought exciting things for Amelia - she spent part of the day in preschool, starting to get acquainted with the room, the teacher, the flow. I can't believe it....my BABY, in preschool. How is it even possible?!? Olivia loved showing her around the room and apparently embraced the big sister role like a champ, which was really encouraging. Today also marks the 3 week countdown until we're spending a few days in Wisconsin Dells with our friends from Indiana. I CANNOT wait!

Thursday brought us MORE snow. Yes, MORE snow. Even Olivia was really upset about it - she just kept saying "mom, it's NEVER going to stop snowing" in the car. I think cabin fever is starting to hit the school pretty hard core too. Today I snatched up a StarTribune Steal for the circus, coming in a few weeks. I had also received a $5.00 off per ticket offer in the mail. My friend from work and her family are coming with us - combining the deals, we only paid $79 total for both families to go. YAY, love me some good deals! The rest of the day was pretty standard. The girls had a good week in school - Amelia is excited about her upcoming transition to preschool, and Olivia is still anxious to be in Pre-K full time. We haven't received any bad reports for either of them for quite a while, so that's AWESOME! Work has been the same ol', same ol' for Christian and I.

Amelia was very focused on her video tonight before bed.

Friday was a really busy day at work, so surprisingly, the day flew by. My mom and I visited for a bit when I picked the girls up and we made our way home. Christian picked up some Pizza Hut for dinner and we settled in for the night.

On Saturday, Olivia had her last swim class of this session. She actually did REALLY great. There are 10 skills she needs to demonstrate to move onto the next level - she mastered 7 of them, which I thought was pretty darn good for her first time ever swimming or taking a class like that. She's all signed up for the next session, of the same level, which starts in a few weeks. Christian had to work today, so Amelia came to class with us. This time she was pretty jealous that she couldn't swim, so I felt pretty bad for her. After class, we met my mom for lunch, finally took her out for her birthday lunch. Neither of the girls ate very well though - Amelia seemed to be exhausted, and I wasn't sure what Olivia's issue was. So, we packed up our leftovers and made our way home for naps. Christian got home right about the same time, and we both crashed for naps on the couches - exhausted household, that's for sure! After naps, we just had a low-key night at home. Watched some movies, ate dinner, did some coloring and relaxing. Olivia started to feel pretty warm, and was complaining that her stomach hurt again. We sent her to bed with a cooling pad on her forehead and some Tylenol - hoping she wasn't coming down with something....again.

I had to get a shot of Olivia's mad drawing skills at lunch today. I thought it was pretty impressive! My little perfectionist!

Sunday morning it was clear that Olivia wasn't feeling well. The girls woke up SUPER early. She was really warm, but no fever. She wouldn't eat and said her tummy hurt. I put a heating pad on her stomach, a cooling pad on her forehead, gave her some medicine and she slept on the couch for a while. She woke up bright eyed and seemingly ready to go. So, we all got ready and went about our plans for the day....we met her BFF's family at the Mall to get some pictures with the Easter Bunny and go on a few rides. We got some great bunny pictures - Amelia was terrified of him last year, so I didn't know what to expect, but she was a rockstar! The girls went on a handful of rides and had a blast. We all grabbed some lunch together and finally made our way home. During lunch, I could tell Olivia's energy was draining and she wasn't feeling well again. To make things worse, she burnt her tongue pretty bad while eating, so she was emotional over that. We were going to skip naps, but both of the girls passed out on the way home, so we let them take a short nap. We had some dinner, took baths and hung out for a while when they got up, then they were right back down for the night. Olivia was pretty miserable, so I'm not sure what to expect for the coming week...

The extent of our St. Patrick's Day celebrating - wearing green clothes!

With that, a fairly low-key week has come to an end. For some odd reason, I haven't posted much regarding  Amelia's potty training. She is doing FANTASTIC! A few weeks ago, after using the potty pretty regularly for a couple of weeks, she told her teacher she wanted to wear underwear like sissy. So, we decided to give it a shot, and try life without diapers. We went day and night, diaper free, to see how she would do. She did great, 100% dry all day, and all night. We kept thinking it had to be some kind of fluke, but continued on with no diapers. Here we are, weeks later, and she hasn't had a single accident, day or night, naps or bedtime, playing or relaxing at home. I'm still in awe, and her teachers are SO proud of her (which always warms my heart). Diapers have never been a huge burden to me, but it's definitely nice to be rid of them after 4 years straight. She's such a big girl, we're so proud of her!